Good News?

Michael Barone, looking at an analysis of the world situation by Thomas Barnett, concludes that things are going better than they appear.

He makes good points but there is one major problem: A sense that the threat from irrational terrorist groups and nations reduces the usual scope of control.

During the Cold War, the mutually assured destruction doctrine shared by the US and the USSR provided an undesirable but predictable framework. Both sides were rational. Switch on the news now and you'll find photos from a portion of the world that appears to have lost its mind.

And those stories are soon followed by reports that their benefactors are getting nuclear weapons.